


when the smoke clears (or, what happened once)

by Spoofymcgee



Series: sunrise, sunset [7]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Anakin Skywalker, Blood and Injury, CT-7567 | Rex Needs a Hug, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hardcase Lives (Star Wars), Lightsabers, Planet Umbara (Star Wars), Protective Anakin Skywalker, Tatooine Culture (Star Wars), Telepathy, That is how the Force Works, Yes it Is, actually, fuck that place, gimme a second, hey so fuck palpafrick, hmm, i hate that dude, i think, sorry bout this, yay i was right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27326611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoofymcgee/pseuds/Spoofymcgee
Summary: “You can’t. Not any of them. Not again.” he emphasizes, lunging forward. Krell tries to fight him off, terror showing clear. “If this were A’Mahdbar, home,” he hisses. “I would rip out your heart and leave it to the suns so that the gods might bleach it clean."
Relationships: 501st Legion & Anakin Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano
Series: sunrise, sunset [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927888
Comments: 20
Kudos: 237





	when the smoke clears (or, what happened once)

**Author's Note:**

> mostly cause anakin deserves his chance to be bamf

“You can’t have them!” he screams. “Do you hear me?! You can’t  _ fucking  _ have them!”   
“Yes,” Krell tells him, simpering smugly as he struts forward, lightstaffs cutting through the air. “I can.”   
_ Anger,  _ Obi-Wan had taught him once,  _ will make you sloppy. Fight calmly. _ _   
_ A desperate lunge, and his blade clatters to the floor, cut in two.    
Krell’s hands close around his throat.

_Three days earlier..._  
  
“No,” Anakin says, folding his arms.  
“Anakin-”  
“No!” he snaps. “I don’t trust him!”  
“Master Krell is a respected Jedi Master-”  
“I don’t fucking care? His casualty rates are through the fucking roof. I’ve seen the briefings, the minute by minutes and I could give you at least three other options for each and every one of his eleven campaigns that probably would have been more successful and-”  
“Anakin!” Obi-Wan shouts. _"_ The Chancellor wants you _here!_ ”  
“But he doesn't _need_ me. Not enough,” the comm goes dark, and he turns to the corner of the room. “What’s Krell’s ETA?”  
“Two hours, sir,” Rex answers, falling in as he storms out the door. “Can I just-”  
“Hmm?” he asks distractedly, pulling up several screens of the terrain.  
“Krell’s not expecting you to be here,” Rex says, pulling off his bucket and tucking it under his arm. “What if-what if he didn’t know you were?”   
Anakin stills, fingers freezing on the type board.  
“No,” he informs Rex. “I’m not going to hide and let him-”  
“We could _stop_ him,” Rex says quietly. “You can protect us. Or you can protect who knows how many others. Krell needs to be stopped, and no one’s going to listen to a clone. Technically, he outranks you, but as a Jedi, If you can prove he’s Fallen, you have legal rights to kill him.”  
“If he’s a traitor-”  
“We’d maybe be charged with mutiny and decommissioned, best case scenario,” Rex cuts him off, speaking with a brutal coolness. “More probably, he’d kill all of us.”  
Anakin’s hands make fists. He presses them to his forehead.  
“Fine,” he grinds out between clenched teeth.  
  
“Ah-Master Kenobi?” Palpatine draws back, surprise flitting briefly across his face. “But where is young Anakin?”  
“Greetings, Chancellor. Knight Skywalker sends his apologies for the lack of his presence, but he ultimately decided it would be more beneficial to stay on-planet and direct his forces alongside Master Krell. He sent Padawan Tano in his stead, and I was advised to accompany her, due to a recent injury sustained while breaking the blockade.”  
“I asked for Anakin specifically,” Palpatine’s brows furrow. “Why should he send his apprentice?”  
“I’m supposed to carry a message if the reason you wanted him back was to pass along sensitive information. He says without a specific reason more important than his current mission he can’t abandon his post.”   
Palpatine’s frown grows deeper.  
“I didn’t realize the situation was so severe.”  
 _He commands the entire kriffing GAR,_ Ahsoka grumbles. _  
__Exactly,_ Obi-Wan answers, though he sounds less sure than he usually is. _He can’t remember everything._ _  
_ _Well maybe he should do some more research before he calls people back from the front lines,_ she snaps.   
  
“Don’t die on me, oh gods, please, don’t die. You’re going to be fine, you hear me, Hardcase?! You’re _fucking_ going to be _fine,_ or else I’ll kill you myself, you understand?!”  
“General?” he rasps, wincing when the shrapnel digs a little farther into his chest.   
“Shut your mouth, I’m terrible at healing as is,” Anakin says, both hands pressed to his chest.   
He laughs. It’s grating.   
“It’s okay, sir,” he says. “Whatever happens, I made a choice. I stand by it.”  
“Shut the _fuck_ up,”Anakin snaps, pressing a little harder. Hardcase’s vision spots. “I’m going to heal you and then I’m going to go kill Krell, understand?”  
“Yes,” Hardcase answers. “Sir.”  
  
“He isn’t answering his comm. Master, why isn’t he answering his comm?” Ahsoka asks worriedly. He has it with him. I know he does. He can’t have broken it, it’s the special one Senator Amidala gave him as a birthday present.”  
“The one she said was to preserve Republic resources because he keeps breaking the standard model?” he questions, brows furrowed, and she nods. “I don’t know. He should be. Maybe he’s sleeping?”  
“Him?” she replies skeptically. “Sleep?”  
“I can’t reach Cody either,” Obi-Wan says, after a moment of fiddling with his vambrace. “I… have a bad feeling about this.”  
  
 _Anger,_ his mother had taught him once, _is your blade. With it, you will free yourself, if you_ own _it, make it_ yours _._ _  
_ _I have,_ Anakin thinks, for a moment eight again, steering a pod through the jagged track of a podrace. _And now it’s their turn._  
“No,” he grinds out. That’s something he’s always been good at saying, ever since he learnt he could.   
_Anakin Skywalker calls, and the Force answers._   
He tosses Krell across the room like a leaf in a hurricane.   
“No,” he says again, advancing slowly towards Krell, a lightsaber clutched in each fist. Krell scrambles backwards, eyes wide. “You can’t. Not any of them. _Not again._ ” he emphasizes, lunging forward. Krell tries to fight him off, terror showing clear. “If this were A’Mahdbar, home,” he hisses. “I would rip out your heart and leave it to the suns so that the gods might bleach it clean. As it is,” he wrests an arm from Krell’s grasp. Smashes the hilt of the lightsaber across his forehead  
“The universe isn’t kind, Krell,” Anakin tells him, settling into a crouch. “It never has been. It never will be. You weren’t. But you were cruel. You killed the men under your charge for sport.   
Standing, Anakin strides over to the doors, pressing his palm to the locking mechanism. He dodges a stray blaster bolt as the opens, surveys the array of weaponry surrounding him.  
“I’m impressed,” he says. The color nearly drains out of Dogma’s face, the blaster he was holding clattering to the floor. “No, no,” Anakin tells him, striding over and picking it up for him. “Good pre-emptive action.”  
“T-thank you, sir,” Dogma, stutters. “Uhm, your eyes-they’re-”  
“What?” Anakin asks, frowning and pressing a hand to the stinging line on his ribs.  
“Blue,” Rex informs him. “And green, and also glowing.” _Pretty,_ he thinks, then gives himself a mental smack.  
“What color your eyes are,” Kix says. “Does _not_ matter when you’re bleeding out on your feet.”  
“Oh,” he murmurs, looking down at the blood on his hand. He sways, once, twice, and Rex barely catches him before he hits the floor.  


**Author's Note:**

> ah. yes. i'll just...  
> *scuttles away*


End file.
